High Hopes
by LoneGiant
Summary: Alison Dixon has been searching for husband Daryl Dixon since the apocalypse started, but after two years with no luck, Alison's luck is about to change after she meets Carl t after S4 mid season.


Alison Dixon wasn't one to give up, but after two years of being alone in the zombie apocalypse she was starting to lose hope, she had been searching for husband and his brother since the end of the world had started, but had been unlucky so far. He wasn't dead, she knew that for certain, as her husband he said before "_Nobody can kill a Dixon but a Dixon", _that was what had stayed with her throughout the whole apocalypse.

Wiping the sweat of her brow, Alison continued her trek through the muggy Georgia forest, stepping over a fallen tree trunk she came to a stop. Taking her bow off her back and loading an arrow, she took in her surroundings, to her left a small river and to her right she could her footsteps, they were to light and quick to be a zombie, she started to panic her last encounter with humans hadn't been so pleasant.

Quickly she climbed the tree nearest to her, reaching the middle of the tree, she waited to see to see who would emerge from the trees. Soon after a young boy emerged from the trees, no older than fourteen with his gun held in front of him.

"_Smart kid" _Alison thought to herself. Having an inner debate with herself, she wondered whether she should go down and see the kid or just wait for him to pass.

"_Hey, I know your up there"_ the young kid called up to. She hadn't noticed that the kid was now standing a the bottom of the tree. Looking down she could now notice the boys features he brown hair that hadn't been cut in awhile and deep blue eyes that had been through a lot, that much she could tell.

Slowly climbing down the tree, she came to a stop in front of the boy and noticed that he was looking at her apprehensively, almost as if she was going to attack him, which was unlikely as she hadn't eaten well in the past few days, but at least the boy wasn't an idiot and trusted every stranger that he came across.

"_I'm Alison, and you are?"_she asked the boy and stuck her hand for the boy to shake. He ignored her hand, but answered her question anyway.

"_Carl" _he answered in a monotone voice

"_I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just looking for my husband, are you alone__?__" _she asked the boy in a gentle voice.

"_Okay, no I'm not alone, __I'm with my dad but he's hurt, and I was out looking for my group after our last camp was attacked"_ Carl told her in a less monotone voice

Taking the newest piece of information, a million thoughts travelled through her head could Daryl has been with this group? Was this boy part of the last group she had run into? She quickly put that thought out of her head the last group had been a group of middle aged slime balls who had no kids in the group.

"_I could come back with you, help your dad? I used to be a nurse before all this started" _she asked Carl, hoping he would he agree so she could find out if her husband been part of the group.

She looked at Carl with a glimmer of hope in eyes, but Carl was still unsure, what if he took this woman back and she attacked him and his dad? But then his dad really needed help and he didn't know how to help him, so he made the decision.

"_Okay, I'll take you back to my dad, but if you try anything I won't hesitate to kill you"_ he told with a look in his eyes that told Alison that the boy wasn't kidding, she was angry at the fact that this is what the world had come to now, young kids being forced to kill to protect themselves instead of being a kid who could play football and flirt with girls.

"_Thanks __kid, i__ promise that I won't hurt you or your dad, you can trust me"_ she told Carl.

"_Yeah, somehow I don't believe __that" _Carl muttered quietly under his breath so Alison was unable to hear

"_We're staying in an old cottage, about an hour and a half walk from here, so we better get going before it gets dark" _Alison was shocked at Carl's tone, he was telling her what to do and she was doing what she was and started to follow the boy, she wondered what had changed about her, she would have never done what she was told before the apocalypse, she never even listened to her husband when he told not to do something stupid, and now she was taking orders from a fourteen year old.

They began their journey back to the cottage, no small talk was made between the two, which left Alison to her own thoughts, she had thought back to day that her and Daryl had got married.

_FLASHBACK_

_They had been driving for the past two days now, from just outside Atlanta to Las Vegas, they had left Daryl's brother Merle in one of his drunken sleeps and left their small home on the outskirts of the forest, and made to Las Vegas_

_They were going to get married. Her parents didn't want her to marry someone like Daryl, a mechanic with a drug addict of a brother, no, they wanted her to marry someone rich and boring, but she wouldn't do that, she loved Daryl and he loved her, so that's when both her and Daryl made the choice to run away and get married away from their home town, away from everyone they knew._

_Daryl gave her the choice as to where they should be married, she chose Vegas, she found it fitting two people meant to be together, but the whole world against them. So that's what they did, packed a bag to last them a few days and hopped into Daryl's beat up Chevy truck and headed out to Vegas._

_END FLASHBACK_

Alison was brought out of her day dream by Carl nudging her shoulder.

"_Hey, we're almost here" _Carl told her.

"_Sorry, I was day dreaming again" _she told Carl with a hint of sadness in her voice after thinking about her husband

"_What were you thinking about?" _Carl asked her with a look of genuine interest on his face, he was starting to warm up to Alison, after he had decided that she wasn't a threat to him so therefore could be an allie to him and his dad.

"_I was thinking about when me and my husband, Daryl, ran away to Las Vegas, it was one of the best days of my life" _she told Carl with a hint of a small smile playing on her

"_Wait..your husband isn't Daryl Dixon is he?"_Carl asked with a look of disbelief on his face, Alison had the same look on her face as she felt her heart skip a beat, this is what she had been wanting to her since the start of the apocalypse.


End file.
